A wholistic biogeographical reconstruction should combine a phylogeny with specifics of organismal biology, plate tectonics and consequent probabilities of historic dispersal events. Here, we demonstrate this approach by reconstructing the geographical origin and sequence of intercontinental colonization of the golden orbweaving spiders, a global clade. We test two alternative hypotheses about their ancestral range. Due to the highest contemporary species diversity in Africa, the ‘Out of Africa’ hypothesis predicts the Afrotropics as their most likely ancestral area. The alternative, ‘Out of West Burma’ hypothesis aims to explain a Burmese amber fossil as stem nephilid. Because the West Burma block probably detached from Australia, then rafted towards Laurasia, either on its own or with India, this hypothesis predicts either Australasia or Indomalaya (or both) as the ancestral area.

中文翻译：

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黄金织布工的生物地理历史：全球征服的年代

全面的生物地理重建应将系统发生学与有机生物学，板块构造以及随之而来的历史性扩散事件的特征相结合。在这里，我们通过重建金球编织蜘蛛（全球进化枝）的洲际殖民地的地理起源和序列来证明这种方法。我们测试关于其祖先范围的两个替代假设。由于非洲当代物种多样性最高，“非洲以外”假说预测非洲人是最有可能祖传的地区。另一种选择是“ Out of West Burma”（外缅甸）假说，旨在将缅甸琥珀化石解释为茎状线虫。由于西缅甸地块可能脱离了澳大利亚，然后独自或与印度一起向劳拉西亚漂流，